Honestly They need to stop rewarding bad behavior in the game. Now folks reserve all the loot or just everything with no fear of action being taken. Pugs are AYOR even worse than in the past. Used to be able to make friends in wow but now not so much sadly.
GRIND DOES NOT EQUAL MAKING A GAME CHALLENGING!! YES I AM YELLING LOL
Other changes that would help bring people back into the game is going back to the older Day and Night cycle, before they brightened everything up to insane levels so night might as well be day in the game, stop nerfing the heck out of the leveling experience, bring back immersive dungeons, etc.
It was seriously shocking how much changed since the 1.0 release of WoW. I went back to the 1.0 servers and got reminded of what made the original one good as well as a little frustrating. The new WoW certainly has a lot of good things that the old one didn't have, like Raid Finder and cross server grouping tools, but how they have them implemented kills the exploration of the game world and makes it a lot smaller than it really is. That and the fact that a level 1 character can kill a level 10 boar when in the original you'd pretty much get your arse handed to you just shows how much they have over compensated for fast tracking people to the desired level.
My comment to Blizzard would be "If you are so interested in getting people to play new content, why are you starting them at level 1 to begin with on new characters just so they have to rapid grind and survive the discord of story hopping multiple expansions?" They are living the joke right now and trying to monetize people like whales via level booster tokens that are basically required unless you want to waste sub time grinding all the way to the right levels.
They've also successfully rendered crafting to near bonkers level pointless in the newer versions of the game . Especially compared to 1.x and 2.x.
Right now they aren't losing players because of other games coming out, they are losing players because they are screwing up their own game and letting other games steal their thunder.
I find it amazing that people really think WoW would be more desirable to play if they simply did away with the grouping tools.
The game got old - and the content was exhausted.
Having to spend hours trying to get a group together again would turn it around? Really?
DKLond,
Only people with no social skills had real problems with getting parties. I had a good guild that I could rely on 75% of the time and 100+ friends list I can rely on nearly the other 25% of the time. Only a few times did I ever need to pug and that was because it was off hours. And yes an MMO without todays Automated group finder tool is more desirable for me to play because it has destroyed any sense of being an MMO. Do I think they needed a better LFG tool like FFXIV's Party finder or todays WOW LFG yep. Nothing more. If you were not capable to find people to play with that is your fault not the game's.
When you have friends Text them a day or so ahead of time like I did and make plans to run an instance. I was still doing this just a few months ago when my friends were playing FFXIV. Its not hard to plan a little in advance. Then you will not need to run 60 Dungeons to gear up, you might have to run 10 to 20 if that.
Are you seriously suggesting that the extra time involved with getting enough people for a raid or a dungeon is exclusively about "social skills"?
Because that's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard.
Is only ridiculous because you have no social skills and you want the game to do everything for you period. I been playing MMOs for a very long time and when you dont have a game doing everything for you, you have to make friends to get somewhere. Problem is people like you belong in single player games not MMOs.
Make the game B2P and I would pop in from time to time to run a dungeon. I would not sub and I really don't enjoy the combat or the questing. So there isn't much they could do to bring me back full time.
I enjoyed the most to play WoW with the release of burning crusade. Afterwards each re-work on the Talent trees and social Tools destroyed the game for me. I would suggest the following Points to make me return to this game:
- take out the LFG/LFR functions, which made the game anonymous and lacking any requirement for deeper social interactions with other Players. Before this functions were introduced, I almost knew each tank and healer, as These were Players only from my homeserver which I could meet again the next time I logged in. The game got more superficial and unambitious/undemanding with the time.
- I used to Play on a RP Server and the LFG/LFR additionaly destroyed the Immersion for me, who enjoys the Feeling of roleplay atmossphere.
- make classes more complex and multifaceted as it was in the old days. I miss the Talent trees which made some differences between Players playing the same class and add some more Variation into the Play style.
- re-add more importance to CC skills and make the dungeons more challenging. Actually you can almost rush through each dungeon without thinking on any tactics (except for some few bosses).
- Also re-introduction of different weapon-sets, for example for the hunter. I miss the Switch between melee and range weapons. Furthermore, I also missed the class specific Equipments as the quiver for the hunter, not only functionally but also visually. I never understood why they took out this Equipment which is Basic for a hunter.
- I do not bother if it takes more time to get some achievement and be rewarded accordingly later, which provided more Motivation.
- Also lots of leveling aspects like language and weapon handling make it more interesting and immersive, especially as WoW was already not that complex with regards to character customization/skills as true rpg.
- Finally, updated graphics would be welcome. Some of the Story NPCs already have nicer and more detailed models and textures. Why not apply this for all Player characters and also animals.
There are certainly much more Points which I could add to this list, but These are the main ones for me. In summary, the game has been simplified and anonymized too much.
At the time of BC I only wished that random item Drops like in Diablo could be introduced to the game, to make it even more exciting to Level and search for other items, with higher drop Chance of more worthy items in dungeons. At that time a combination of WoW and Diablo game mechanism would have improved the game for me for more individualization. But now the game is nothing of both.
For me to go back, they need to drop mandatory subscription if they want me to buy expansion, I am fine with current cash shop, so they either drop sub or drop expansion purchase. Paying to play something i already bought is nonsense.
I havent paid for wow in forever. I just buy tokens with gold. And I have enough gold for 3+ years of playing. Check out the token option
There's nothing wrong with WoW's graphics or story, its the formula for content they use. Honestly, imo, MoP was better thought through activity wise than WoD. 3 raids and a boring place to grind in which you pretty much were at in the beginning of the expansion, plus some QoL patches....yay, now wait a year for the next expansion.
World of Warcraft, not likely! Left when Lich King came out. Have not looked back. I already have spent quite a bit of money on Blizzards other titles. Hearthstone, and HOTS. As well as D3 on both PC and console. Thats not counting Blizzards retro titles. Warcraft 2-3,Starcraft, D2..of which I still play to this day.
WOW is just a good memory now. When I left WOW I was at the top of my game. I plan to keep it that way!
Revert the game or open a server that is based on Vanilla/BC. None of the baby mode crap the game has become.
The game has being going downhill ever since WoTLK launched. And I do not see Legion fixing any of my major issue I have with the game right now. The devs just took it down a path I am not a fan of. The game use to be challenging even outside top tier raid. Have to remember there use to be a time where openworld quest mobs would kill you if you were not careful.
So Yea I do not see them getting me back, at least not for more then a few weeks every expansion to check out the changes.
Well, the problem is that the system Blizzard built worked fine when the leveling experience was about going from 1 to 60. Then the expansions came: they had to find some way to get people to the new content or they would lose players, so they decided the easiest way to do that was to nerf the previous content to make it easier to reach the new levels. Then MORE expansions came. Blizzards shrugged, if it worked before, it will work again, right? Except they wanted it to go even fast so they added heirlooms so established players wouldn't have to go through the tedious effort of grinding old content for the millionth time.
What happened next? More expansions, and this time they also wanted to streamline the leveling process even more, so they changed the entire old world to fit their new roller coaster ride philosophy and ended the old world. And this pattern has continued up to the point where now they have just sort of monetized the entire process and are selling level boosting tokens to get people to where they need to be for the next expansion.
So that is how we have gone from barely being able to fight off a level 10 boar at level 10 to being able to kill things nearly 10+ levels higher than ourselves in old world content. Contrary to what the devs at blizzard believe, the old game was a lot more casual friendly than they give it credit for. It had content you'd probably only tackle on a good weekend, but 90% of the game was doable in small groups, and it had enough bits and bobs laying around to make it fun for small groups to get together and explore. Also, if Demon souls has proven anything, a game with some challenge is better than a game without.
They can just keep doing what they've been doing because I never left?
As much as people love to complain, the game is popular for a reason, and that's because what they have done right trumps what has gone wrong with the game over the years. While they are diming on the insta-level packages and preorder bonuses, they have a good inventory system, a highly accessible over world, fun art style, and "keep it simple" gameplay. Also, while the current game isn't maintained by the original team anymore, it has that old Blizzard spirit still lingering about that gives the game a bit of a timeless quality.
Legacy Servers are the only thing with a chance to suck me back in. If I could play a Shockadin and SV Hunter as they were back in TBC down to the smallest detail like hunter autos being clipped if you didn't watch it then I may get back into it.
Nothing would get me back into the current game. I played a lot of wow and leveled a lot of characters and just had to get one to 20 for a Hearthstone portrait and it was painful. It took me about ten sessions because I'd play for ten minutes and then just couldn't go on.
Legacy Servers are the only thing with a chance to suck me back in. If I could play a Shockadin and SV Hunter as they were back in TBC down to the smallest detail like hunter autos being clipped if you didn't watch it then I may get back into it.
Nothing would get me back into the current game. I played a lot of wow and leveled a lot of characters and just had to get one to 20 for a Hearthstone portrait and it was painful. It took me about ten sessions because I'd play for ten minutes and then just couldn't go on.
Problem is that they said they are never going to do legacy servers and the biggest private server of them all that was running the original got shut down by a cease and desist from blizzard due to too much traffic (kind of ironic if you ask me). The fact is the current game doesn't appeal to the same group as the original did, which is why we have seemingly two communities of people constantly going at each other with World of Warcraft. Activision wanted to go for the bigger financial pie and felt that if they went with the super easy casual approach they could net more fish, which they did, but said fish have much less a vested interest in staying with the game after hitting cap since they have no long term commitments to roller coaster games. They just sort of drift from one game to another.
The other difficulty is that they are basically charging 100+ USD for players to return to their game if they skipped Warlords or simply left during pandaria (like I did). I'm not even sure what someone does if they left before that point during cataclysm. The level boost isn't even an option as much as a requirement since most players aren't going to be too interested in playing Warlords when they are just going to story hop like a mad sheep into Legion.
As was stated in another thread discussing the downfall of a vanilla classic server. I would definitely pick up WoW again if they released a Classic server with different/harder/rarer or anything rulesets. RS Ironman and Deadman are popular hits now and I believe if Blizz went back to their roots, they would find people willing to resub for the option.
As was stated in another thread discussing the downfall of a vanilla classic server. I would definitely pick up WoW again if they released a Classic server with different/harder/rarer or anything rulesets. RS Ironman and Deadman are popular hits now and I believe if Blizz went back to their roots, they would find people willing to resub for the option.
It's the entire issue of trying to appeal to everyone and ultimately not 100% pleasing anybody. I'm not sure why they aren't doing what Path of Exile does and make specialty servers that rotate or something if they aren't willing to host a specific one.
The only couple of things that would bring me back are:
1) As someone said, Legacy Servers (I know, never gonna happen. But I can dream). And the reason for that is explained in 2.
2) Stop the god damned race to the end leveling. I enjoyed the steady leveling that taught you how to play your class. Not the "Roll your face across the keyboard to get those high numbers" playstyle it is today. It's just too....boring. Vanilla WoW felt like a living breathing world. Now? Now it just feels like you're doing 200 MPH's in a NASCAR race and not even experiencing anything.
3) And stop dumbing down the damn game. Stop catering to the lowest common denominator. I'm not a raider or PvP'er. But I HATE that every expansion we had to learn our classes all over again. After WoD I was like: "That's it, I'm done." The classes became too simple. Barely a shell of what made them great in the first place.
Comments
GRIND DOES NOT EQUAL MAKING A GAME CHALLENGING!! YES I AM YELLING LOL
It was seriously shocking how much changed since the 1.0 release of WoW. I went back to the 1.0 servers and got reminded of what made the original one good as well as a little frustrating. The new WoW certainly has a lot of good things that the old one didn't have, like Raid Finder and cross server grouping tools, but how they have them implemented kills the exploration of the game world and makes it a lot smaller than it really is. That and the fact that a level 1 character can kill a level 10 boar when in the original you'd pretty much get your arse handed to you just shows how much they have over compensated for fast tracking people to the desired level.
My comment to Blizzard would be "If you are so interested in getting people to play new content, why are you starting them at level 1 to begin with on new characters just so they have to rapid grind and survive the discord of story hopping multiple expansions?" They are living the joke right now and trying to monetize people like whales via level booster tokens that are basically required unless you want to waste sub time grinding all the way to the right levels.
They've also successfully rendered crafting to near bonkers level pointless in the newer versions of the game . Especially compared to 1.x and 2.x.
Right now they aren't losing players because of other games coming out, they are losing players because they are screwing up their own game and letting other games steal their thunder.
Ea is like a poo fingered midas ~ShakyMo
Games like WoW are an alternative for people like me who don't have a good enough computer.
I enjoyed the most to play WoW with the release of burning crusade. Afterwards each re-work on the Talent trees and social Tools destroyed the game for me. I would suggest the following Points to make me return to this game:
- take out the LFG/LFR functions, which made the game anonymous and lacking any requirement for deeper social interactions with other Players. Before this functions were introduced, I almost knew each tank and healer, as These were Players only from my homeserver which I could meet again the next time I logged in. The game got more superficial and unambitious/undemanding with the time.
- I used to Play on a RP Server and the LFG/LFR additionaly destroyed the Immersion for me, who enjoys the Feeling of roleplay atmossphere.
- make classes more complex and multifaceted as it was in the old days. I miss the Talent trees which made some differences between Players playing the same class and add some more Variation into the Play style.
- re-add more importance to CC skills and make the dungeons more challenging. Actually you can almost rush through each dungeon without thinking on any tactics (except for some few bosses).
- Also re-introduction of different weapon-sets, for example for the hunter. I miss the Switch between melee and range weapons. Furthermore, I also missed the class specific Equipments as the quiver for the hunter, not only functionally but also visually. I never understood why they took out this Equipment which is Basic for a hunter.
- I do not bother if it takes more time to get some achievement and be rewarded accordingly later, which provided more Motivation.
- Also lots of leveling aspects like language and weapon handling make it more interesting and immersive, especially as WoW was already not that complex with regards to character customization/skills as true rpg.
- Finally, updated graphics would be welcome. Some of the Story NPCs already have nicer and more detailed models and textures. Why not apply this for all Player characters and also animals.
There are certainly much more Points which I could add to this list, but These are the main ones for me. In summary, the game has been simplified and anonymized too much.
At the time of BC I only wished that random item Drops like in Diablo could be introduced to the game, to make it even more exciting to Level and search for other items, with higher drop Chance of more worthy items in dungeons. At that time a combination of WoW and Diablo game mechanism would have improved the game for me for more individualization. But now the game is nothing of both.
I would try a WoW2 thing...if it ever gets made.
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
WOW is just a good memory now. When I left WOW I was at the top of my game. I plan to keep it that way!
Revert the game or open a server that is based on Vanilla/BC. None of the baby mode crap the game has become.
The game has being going downhill ever since WoTLK launched. And I do not see Legion fixing any of my major issue I have with the game right now. The devs just took it down a path I am not a fan of. The game use to be challenging even outside top tier raid. Have to remember there use to be a time where openworld quest mobs would kill you if you were not careful.
So Yea I do not see them getting me back, at least not for more then a few weeks every expansion to check out the changes.
What happened next? More expansions, and this time they also wanted to streamline the leveling process even more, so they changed the entire old world to fit their new roller coaster ride philosophy and ended the old world. And this pattern has continued up to the point where now they have just sort of monetized the entire process and are selling level boosting tokens to get people to where they need to be for the next expansion.
So that is how we have gone from barely being able to fight off a level 10 boar at level 10 to being able to kill things nearly 10+ levels higher than ourselves in old world content. Contrary to what the devs at blizzard believe, the old game was a lot more casual friendly than they give it credit for. It had content you'd probably only tackle on a good weekend, but 90% of the game was doable in small groups, and it had enough bits and bobs laying around to make it fun for small groups to get together and explore. Also, if Demon souls has proven anything, a game with some challenge is better than a game without.
Nothing would get me back into the current game. I played a lot of wow and leveled a lot of characters and just had to get one to 20 for a Hearthstone portrait and it was painful. It took me about ten sessions because I'd play for ten minutes and then just couldn't go on.
The other difficulty is that they are basically charging 100+ USD for players to return to their game if they skipped Warlords or simply left during pandaria (like I did). I'm not even sure what someone does if they left before that point during cataclysm. The level boost isn't even an option as much as a requirement since most players aren't going to be too interested in playing Warlords when they are just going to story hop like a mad sheep into Legion.
I would definitely pick up WoW again if they released a Classic server with different/harder/rarer or anything rulesets. RS Ironman and Deadman are popular hits now and I believe if Blizz went back to their roots, they would find people willing to resub for the option.
1) As someone said, Legacy Servers (I know, never gonna happen. But I can dream). And the reason for that is explained in 2.
2) Stop the god damned race to the end leveling. I enjoyed the steady leveling that taught you how to play your class. Not the "Roll your face across the keyboard to get those high numbers" playstyle it is today. It's just too....boring. Vanilla WoW felt like a living breathing world. Now? Now it just feels like you're doing 200 MPH's in a NASCAR race and not even experiencing anything.
3) And stop dumbing down the damn game. Stop catering to the lowest common denominator. I'm not a raider or PvP'er. But I HATE that every expansion we had to learn our classes all over again. After WoD I was like: "That's it, I'm done." The classes became too simple. Barely a shell of what made them great in the first place.
Just my two cents.